Bill O’Reilly’s interview of Richard Dawkins

I think what’s most surprising is how nice things were. Yes, most of O’Reilly’s points were pretty stupid, but he was calm, polite, and in the end said “I will say, your book is fascinating and thank you for coming on here.” O’Reilly’s views are probably not far off from a good proportion of his audience’s, so having them brought out in the open and the reasons why they’re wrong explained politely can only increase the acceptance of atheists and agnostics in America. Given the recent incident of atheists being hounded out of their home and job, this can only be good.

…This was a surprising polite debate, covering some of the (very) basic main points, and letting Dawkins have his say more than I expected. O’Reilly obviously differs strongly from Dawkins, but must deserve credit for allowing – even fostering – debate on his show. Good on him.